


Lightening Strikes

by juniperallura



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Light Angst, PJO AU, Pining, athena!shiro, camp half blood au, zeus!allura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 19:54:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13771368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juniperallura/pseuds/juniperallura
Summary: For prompt "Write about how Shiro gets that white steak in the PJO AU...was it on a quest with Allura?"Shiro gets his first quest and, of course, asks his best friend to join him- but things don't always go smoothly when you're with a daughter of Zeus.





	Lightening Strikes

It was supposed to be a simple quest. Athena had appeared to Shiro in a dream, asking her favored son to retrieve some lost, treasured item. Of course he asked his best friend, the girl he trusted with his life, to be his second. They had both been on quests before and accompanied satyrs on demigod retrieval missions. They were both cabin leaders, highly capable by most standards. They didn’t even have to go too far- their prophesy (which was free of fatal predictions!) pointed them toward Connecticut.

A recipe for smooth sailing, right?

(Wrong.)

Shiro was a little nervous about leading his first quest, so they had tried to remain inconspicuous and avoid technology (and, actually, avoid civilization all together.) But of course, even camped out in the middle of nowhere, the monsters found them. That’s how it went, being a daughter of Zeus.

Shiro crouched lower behind a bush, holding his sword closer to his chest so the celestial bronze wouldn’t catch the glint of the campfire. Allura did the same with her shield, turning its silver face, emblazoned with a soaring eagle, toward the ground. She watched Shiro watch their campsite, abandoned when they heard the rustling of an approaching monster. In the flickering firelight she swore she could see the wheels turning in his head, a plan piecing together behind his dark eyes.

“On my signal,” he murmured, glancing over his shoulder.

As Allura nodded she twisted the ring she wore on her index finger, ridged with a carved design. She felt a little heat as the ring transformed in her hand into a metal spear, the base of its lethal tip engraved with thunderbolts— a gift from her father. A smile spread over Shiro’s face when she nodded at him. She could tell what he was thinking; that monster didn’t stand a chance.

Shiro waited until the monster bent to sniff their packs before hissing, “Now!”

Time seemed to move quicker than usual. Allura lunged in after Shiro, who made quick work of slashing off one of the monster’s insect-like arms. Allura raised her spear, but the monster was quick; it whipped around and set its beady eyes on her, letting out a piercing screech. It opened its jaws, a strangle gurgling rising from its chest— she only realized what it was doing at the last second. There was a sudden burst of light and a flash of heat; she closed her eyes and raised her shield against it. Then came a strangled cry and a dull thud, which faded quickly to silence. The silver of her shield hissed from contact with the monster’s strange beam.

Her heart was pounding- she knew that voice. Her eyes darted to where Shiro should have been standing, brow set and sword readied—

He lay on the ground a few feet from her, smoke curling from the top of his head.

She blinked, the images freezing in her mind. There was another beat of silence before she realized exactly what had happened. What the monster had done. What  _she_  had done.

All the blood rushed from her face, and began to pound frantically through her veins. She whirled on the monster, which was gnashing its teeth at her, as sparks began to pop and flare from her hands. Her grip tightened around the shaft of her spear. She lifted it into the sky, sending a prayer to her father in the form of a guttural scream, and summoned every ounce of electricity she could muster as she plunged the butt of the spear into the earth. The air seemed to crack as a blazing bolt of lightening tore down from the sky and struck the monster.

In a blinding flash of light the monster was obliterated into ash. Allura stood blinking at the pile of remains, her chest heaving, for only a moment. Her weapon shrank back into a ring as she threw down her shield and rushed over to where Shiro lay, his chest rising and falling unevenly.

“Oh gods,” she whimpered. His skin was brushed with ash and bruises, his face contorted with pain; but most disconcerting was the shock of white that had appeared in his dark locks. Allura’s hands hesitated over his chest, unsure of what to do. He was breathing, that had to be a good sign. Right?

She darted to her pack, reaching for whatever could help her. Ambrosia, nectar, cloth, water. She tried to take deep breaths, her hands shaking as she slid one under Shiro’s head and held the canteen of nectar to his lips with the other. “It’s okay, Shiro,” she whispered, her words catching on the rawness of her throat, “Please be okay.” His body shuddered as the nectar went down, but his eyes stayed closed.

She dampened the cloth and began to press it against his face, gently dabbing the dirt and soot and- di immortales-  _blood_ away. ”Please, please, please,” she prayed to anyone who was listening. His mother, that she would look after her son. Apollo, that he would guide her hand in healing as best she could. Her father, that he would spare his daughter the pain of losing her best friend, the person she loved perhaps most in the world.

At that thought she had to bite her lip to stop the stinging moisture in her eyes from spilling over, and reached to cup Shiro’s cheek in her palm. Then, as if from her touch, Shiro took another shuddering breath and his eyes fluttered open. He look up at her through dark lashes, his gaze unfocused. “Allura-?” he asked weakly.

“Shiro-!”Allura threw her arms around him, pressing her face to his chest for a second before she remembered the state he was in. She raised her eyes to the sky, offering silent thanks to whoever answered her desperate prayer. When she looked back at Shiro he was struggling to sit upright, wincing at the pain. She helped him scoot up enough to lean against her shoulder and broke off a small piece of ambrosia. With relief she noticed his stiff posture relaxing as he chewed. “How- how do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been deep fried.” He gratefully accepted another piece of the godly food. She saw his gaze flicker toward her shield, now tarnished where it had deflected the beam. “That monster- did it-?”

Allura nodded, not meeting his eyes when he looked at her. She knew what he was doing, passing the blame to the monster. “Shiro, I’m so sorry-” Her breath hitched as she tried to tamp down the hot guilt rising in her chest. “This was  _your_ quest, it was supposed to be so easy, and I…”

“-Allura-”

“I almost  _killed_ you, Shiro!” Her voice cracked at the word. “I didn’t even think,I just reacted, I just wanted to save my own skin-”

Allura’s words gave way to stuttering breaths as hot tears left tracks down her cheeks. Shiro grabbed her hand, holding tight. When she could bring herself to look at him his face was drawn with pain, but still he held her gaze unflinchingly, his dark eyes brimming with some emotion she couldn’t decode. “Listen, Allura,” he said gently, “I’m the son of Athena. It’s my job to analyze, and strategize, and overthink. You’re the daughter of Zeus- it’s your job to be a total badass and shoot lightening at stuff. And you’re pretty amazing at it, I mean, gods, look at that pile of ash, right?” He raised his other hand to her cheek and wiped away the lingering tears, flashing a smile that she couldn’t help but mirror. A relieved laugh broke through her sniffling. “If anyone, I’m to blame. If I hadn’t rushed into the clearing, if I had stopped to figure out exactly what that thing was, we wouldn’t be-”

“No, don’t you dare-” Allura shook her head, laughing weakly- “ _I_ should be comforting  _you_ , not the other way around.” She was glad to see color returning to Shiro’s face as she gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

“But that’s what team work’s about, right? Supporting each other, protecting each other.”

“Yeah, right.” Something skittered in Allura’s chest as she met his soft smile; she pulled her hand from his rather abruptly. “Still- I’m sorry. I can’t believe I turned your hair white!” She reached out as if to touch the newly bleached lock, but the weird feeling in her gut stopped her hand half way.

Shiro didn’t seem to notice— his eyes had gone wide and his jaw slack. He grabbed at his hair, trying to pull it down in front of his eyes. “You  _what?_ ”

Allura’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “Oh gods, I didn’t even- Shiro, I’m so sorry!”

“Is it- is it  _all_ white?” Shiro glanced toward her hesitantly, still holding his hair.

Allura shook her head. “No, just that piece in the front.”

Shiro dragged a hand down his face, making a noise somewhere between a groan and a laugh. “How weird does it look?”

“So, so weird-” Allura tried to lighten the mood, giving him a mischievous smile, “You look like an old man.”

“Shut up,” Shiro snorted, nudging her in the shoulder.

Their gazes met and Allura suddenly got a feeling not unlike the spark that came before she summoned lightening.

She cleared her throat. “Here-” Allura handed him her canteen before she pulled away. “Drink some more nectar. Then we should probably pack up and move.”

Two weeks later, they had been safe and sound back at Camp Half Blood for a few days.

The day they returned had been a weird one. They crossed the border to camp and immediately an owl appeared, swooping down to snatch the recovered artifact from Shiro’s hands and carry it to the heavens. The sky turned gold and Athena’s voice echoed from the clouds, praising her son and bestowing her blessing upon him. There was a flash of light and suddenly Shiro was wearing a crown of twisting olive branches. The whole camp swarmed him, asking a million questions at once about the quest and his white hair and his mother’s blessing; he just looked disorientedly back at everyone and let his siblings pull him back to their cabin.

Later, as the camp filed into the dining pavilion, Allura overheard one of the other Athena kids saying Shiro had sat at his desk for hours, writing furiously and without pause, apparently coming up with unbeatable Capture the Flag strategies and completely redesigning their cabin. Then he had passed out and had to be shaken awake for dinner. Some of his siblings were still trying to question him, but he was quiet, pushing his food around his plate. A few times when Allura glanced to the Athena table he was looking at her, an unusual intensity in his eyes. She smiled at him, but he didn’t appear to notice, just turning back to his plate with a dazed expression.

The next day the olive crown was gone and Shiro seemed to be back to normal. He tried to explain what happened as they rowed together across the lake, but he couldn’t quite find the words.

“It was just like- like my brain was in overdrive, y’know? Like I was having a hundred thoughts all at once, but they all made sense.” He sighed and shook his head, his gaze trailing over the water. 

“I get it,” Allura said, laying down her oar so they could just float, “It’s hard to explain.” She had never been blessed by her father, but she imagined trying to describe summoning lightening to someone— she’d never really be able to convey the feeling.

Shiro nodded, meeting her eyes with a soft smile as they lapsed into comfortable silence.

The days continued pretty much the same, camp settling down after the excitement of a finished quest. Allura and Shiro enjoyed their summer, pairing up to lead training sessions, canoeing, sitting together at the nightly bonfires. Weirdly, after being together on their mission, they seemed to talk less than before; instead, they would drift into an easy quiet. Allura found herself either studying Shiro’s profile, always thoughtful, or staring at the white streak in his hair. Even weirder: when Lance- ever perceptive- brought up the change in their dynamic during an archery lesson, Allura’s stomach suddenly turned to jelly and she took a defensive tone.

“You’re just looking for gossip,” she chided, trying to keep her focus on the arrow she had notched and not on the stutter in her heartbeat.

“I’m just observing,” Lance raised his brows, “You’re the one jumping to conclusions.”

The thought stuck with Allura, always in the back of her mind. Why was she suddenly so nervous about Shiro? What had changed?

That same thought was keeping her from sleep a few nights later when she suddenly heard an urgent rapping at her cabin door. She cautiously opened the door to find Shiro illuminated in the torchlight

“Shiro,” she hissed, moving aside to usher him quickly into the cabin, “What are you doing? The harpies will peck your eyes out if they catch you!”

“I, um, couldn’t sleep,” Shiro said, scratching his head. He was barefoot, like Allura, and clad in a t-shirt and joggers. He shifted his weight from foot to foot, only looking at her for a second at a time. “I don’t know, I just figured-”

“It’s okay, I couldn’t sleep either.” Their glances met with a mutual smile.

At that moment, a strange mix of relief and anxiety swept over Allura— and a sudden, stupid, simple realization hit her.

“Do want to go somewhere and talk, Shiro? Away from- him?” She nodded to the statue of her father that loomed from the back of the cabin.

She gestured for him to follow and climbed up the ladder hidden in her bed niche, coming out onto the balcony shielded from the harpies’ view.

“Wow,” Shiro breathed as he settled on the ground beside her, “What a view.”

Allura nodded, gazing up at the carpet of stars above them. Her eyes fell slowly from the sky to fix once again on Shiro’s shock of white hair, gleaming like her own silver locks in the moonlight. It made him look even more handsome, she decided. He caught her staring and laughed. “Takes awhile to get used to, huh?”

She chuckled, looking away from him when that churning feeling returned to her stomach. She fiddled with the ring on her index finger. A cool breeze swept over the balcony and she sucked in a deep breath. She would face this head on, just like anything else. “Shiro, ever since we got back I can’t stop thinking about what happened on the quest.”

“Allura-” 

She cut him off before he could start comforting her again. “-Not like I’m  _guilty_ \- although, I’m still really sorry.” She flashed him a smile, which quickly softened into a serious, sincere expression. “I owe the gods big time for saving your life. We’ve been friends for so long, but when you were laying there unconscious, I guess I realized how much you really mean to me.” She laid her hand over his, gently. “I care about you Shiro, as more than a friend.”

She looked at him, holding her breath, trying to read his expression.

For a second he just gazed back at her with the same dazed expression he had when Athena blessed him. Then he wrapped one hand around hers and cupped the other against her cheek and drew her toward him and kissed her. His lips were soft against hers, their kiss tender but hesitant. He pulled away slowly, with a deep sigh. His dark eyes hovered inches from hers.

“I care about you, too, Allura,” he murmured. A flush spread across both their faces as their hands clasped tighter. “When I had my mom’s blessing, there was so much stuff I felt like I finally understood. All those thoughts flying around, half of them were about you. I realized- I think I’ve had a crush on you for awhile.” He smiled sheepishly, looking out over the campgrounds. “I was trying to figure out the best plan, the best time to tell you. But you never need a plan, you always just know.” He turned back to her and pressed another kiss against her cheek.

Allura wrapped her arm around his, unable to keep from smiling as she leaned her head against his shoulder. Someone up in Olympus really had to be looking out for her. “Guess I should’ve struck you with lightening years ago,” she said, smiling against the warmth of his chest.

Shiro snorted, nudging her gently. “Shut up.”


End file.
